Last year, I wrote a post about things that I’m bad at as an adult, a list that consisted of things like making my bed, cooking dinner, and doing anything over the phone. Since I wrote that post, I’m happy to say that I’ve gotten significantly better at most of the things that I listed in that blog post. To continue the conversation about being an adult – and being a touch more positive about it than last year – here are the things that I get excited about as an adult.

1. Clothes

I think pretty much everyone can get on the same page with this one. As kids on Christmas day, if we received a gift that came in a rectangular box no bigger than the size of a folded shirt, we immediately knew what sat inside the box and wanted nothing to do with it. When our parents took us out to run errands, if each stop that we made didn’t have a toy section, the trip was automatically categorized as a chore. As I grew up, especially after I started college, opening a box of clothing for my birthday and Christmas felt a lot like opening a treasure chest full of gold. I feel like as adults, clothing begins to signify something more than what it did when we were kids, and we use the clothes we put on our backs as a statement of our identity. Everyday presents a new opportunity to express who we are, and receiving more articles of clothing creates avenues to make those statements. Just as we used toys to manifest our imaginations into a reality, clothing fulfills a similar purpose on a deeper level.

2. Shopping

Going to the store with our parents as children was probably one of the last things we wanted to spend our time doing. But who could blame us? We didn’t have money to buy what we wanted, and anything that we brought to our parents was usually met with a hard “no.” Now, whether it’s shopping for clothes, recreational items, or even groceries, I revel in the thought of being able to roam around the store by myself and pick things out for myself. Granted I would rather spend my hard earned money on things I want instead of the practical things I need, knowing I have the means to be financially self-sufficient is enough to make the sometimes cumbersome trips to the grocery store worth while.

3. Doing Nothing

Because there were far too many toys to play with and too many imaginary dragons to slay, the thought of being bored with nothing to do is almost as terrifying as having too much to do as an adult. After being bogged down by years of homework assignments and hours of working part time jobs, we try to savor every moment of silence that we can get our hands on. I still find myself reverting to the mindset of trying to fill my day with as many projects as I can and, as a result, becoming so overwhelmed with all of the things I gave myself to do. Trying to find time to be satisfied with just sitting and not being pressured to do anything is something that I need to work on.

4. Furniture

Prior to living on my own, furniture was never something that I thought too much about since things like my bed, desk, tables, and chairs were readily available for me to use. A few weeks ago when I found myself in dire need of a new dresser, I counted down the days until I would be able to take that long-awaited trip to Ikea and pick a new one out for myself. When my roommates and I moved into our new house, we found ourselves with multiple rooms we needed to furnish and, trying hard not to think about the amount of money we’d have to spend on furniture, it was fun thinking about all the different possible ways we could fill our space with the furniture we’d need. This, again, most likely comes from a place of wanting to realize our imaginations into reality, and getting to use whatever creativity we have to express ourselves in the place we live in.

5. Making New Friends

As I’ve said in a recent blog post, making friends as an adult can be a difficult thing to do. As kids and young adults in school, we’re constantly sharing the same space as other people who are on the same page of life, and so making friends was inevitable and something that we probably took advantage of at the time. Now, it’s hard to find people that we can easily vibe with, and people we want to go out of our way to spend time with. While finding new friends as children was a normal part of everyday living, being able to make friends as an adult is such a rare occasion, but a treat nonetheless when it does happen.